AUTHOR/CREATOR:
Stephenie Meyer
YEAR CREATED:
2005
NATIONALITY:
America
PHYSICAL TRAITS: Pale, purplish shadows under eyes, extremely attractive, golden to black eyes in those surviving on a "vegetarian" diet, red to black eyes in those on a traditional vampire diet.
SUPERNATURAL ABILITIES: Extreme speed, strength and hyper-aware senses. Some also have additional talents such as foresight, control over others' emotions, tracking etc
SUSTENANCE/FEEDING: Crave the blood of humans, but can survive off a diet of animal blood (although the thirst for blood is constantly present, even in satiation). Only needs to feed every couple of weeks.
BECOMING A VAMPIRE: Requires being bitten by a vampire and injected with vampire venom. The venom then works its way through the human body, causing cellular changes throughout the body over usually a three day period. Incredibly painful.
VAMPIRE POLITICS: As vampires are still a secret from the general populace, most vampires are solitary or in small wandering hunting groups. As a result, only one political power exists within the vampire world, those which police vampire existence to ensure that the secret is kept. These police, called the Volturi, are not without corruption and are by no means a benign force.
INTERACTION WITH OTHER SUPERNATURAL BEINGS: Very few other supernatural beings are mentioned within the series, with the exception of werewolves.
HOW TO KILL A VAMPIRE: The only way to kill a vampire is to completely tear it to pieces and then burn the remains. As vampire flesh is very strong and the skin basically impenetrable, only vampire and werewolf teeth are able to pierce the skin.
VAMPIRE VULNERABILITIES: Become very conspicuous under sunlight (however are not damaged by it). Only truly vulnerable to attack by other vampires or by werewolves.
SOCIAL STATUS: As vampires still exist as a secret from humankind, the majority of vampires have little or no social status, and survive simply off what they are able to steal off their prey. This excludes the Cullen family, who abstain from drinking human blood and thus are able to live within normal society. However, as they do not age, their is a limited time which they can exist in any one place before needing to move on to prevent suspicion.
INTERACTION WITH HUMANS: Traditional vampires view humans purely as a food source and generally as beneath their notice otherwise. The Cullens vary from this in that they form some transient relationships with the humans around them, but due to the natural instincts of humans generally do not form strong friendships.
